conditional branching

[Perplexed]

Is there any way of handling condiyional branching in MS Project? In other
words, selecting different paths of tasks depending on an outcome of external
or internal event?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Is there any way of handling condiyional branching in MS Project? In other
words, selecting different paths of tasks depending on an outcome of external
or internal event?

Perplexed,

Project does not provide that functionality. But there are a number of
3rd party add-in projects that do Monte Carlo simulation that provide this.

 

[Perplexed]

Thanks Rob,
However, my issue is a scenario when the follow-up path depends on a result
of e.g. quality tests of a completed product batch. If quality is acceptable
the batch is ready-to-ship; if the batch is rejected, it is disposed of,; if
it is marginal, it is transferred to rework.

 

[Rob Schneider]

As I understand, that's what production planning systems can do. That's
not what Project is about. Project is calculation engine that computes
project schedules. I can see how to model this scenerio in a project
that depends the probability of the quality test (or tests) failing and
the change in execution that results; thus see what impact that has on
the computed end date and cost of a project that depends on that quality
testing.

And I guess I can sort of see how a batch production is like a project
(has a beginning, middle, and end). So, with Monte Carlo simulation,
you could get a handle on the design time and cost of a batch process.
But it would be just that--assisting in designing the batch process
(fine tuning, optimising, etc. based on modelling). However, Project is
not an ideal tool for doing production planning/modelling, but it's
better than starting from a blank sheet of paper. To avoid the need for
doing time based computations, I'd give it a shot; but I wouldn't make
any promises until tried and proven.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Perplexed,

You could include the additional tasks for a failure and then delete them if
all was well. That would give you one iteration. If it fails again, just
copy the routine and paste it in again. This could possibly be done by
using a macro to be activated in case of failure. If you want to get really
sophisticated, try asking the VBA experts who hang out in the
microsoft.public.project.developer newsgroup (forum). ( Please see FAQ Item:
24. Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other useful Project
information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm )

Mike Glen
Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

Ditto what everyone else has said. Try flagging the conditional branches
with a custom flag field and then considering the secondary branch part of
your risk contingency, with the primary branch as your main project budget.
Set up a custom group to break out the cost of the contingent activities.

Then you can report on cost broken out by budget and contingency. Since
it's not a sure thing that you'll take the worst branch each time, you can
figure out a calculation summing the total differences in the two branches,
then assigning 50% (or whatever number) of that to some risk budget.

Just an idea....

Third party tools do that a bit better, but you can do it here without them.